Executive search is a mapped, direct-approach method for hiring senior leaders. Instead of advertising a role and screening who replies, the search firm identifies every credible person holding that role in the market, approaches them privately, and brings the ones worth meeting to the table. Recruitment Mantra has run leadership mandates from Kolkata since 2006.
The reason the method exists is simple. The person you want for a business head role is not reading job adverts. They are employed, performing, and not looking. They will take a call from someone who already understands their market, and they will not answer a generic email from a portal.
| Executive search | Standard recruitment | |
|---|---|---|
| How candidates are found | Market mapped, then approached directly | Advertised, then applications screened |
| Who is in the pool | People currently employed and not looking | People actively job hunting |
| Confidentiality | Assumed, often required | Rarely an issue |
| Assessment depth | Track record, leadership style, cultural fit | Skills and experience against a brief |
| Typical roles | CXO, director, business head, functional head | Executive to senior manager |
| Timeline | 6 to 12 weeks | 2 to 5 weeks |
Our leadership mandates cover board members, managing directors, presidents, chief executives and functional heads across finance, operations, technology, sales and human resources. Sectors follow our wider practice: BFSI, pharma, BPO and KPO, logistics, ITES, manufacturing and engineering. Senior leadership roles that do not need a confidential search are handled through our broader leadership hiring service.
- Your side: Replacing a sitting leader, or hiring for a business line you have not announced, cannot be advertised. We approach the market without naming you until a candidate has been assessed and is worth a real conversation, and we agree in writing who inside your organisation is in the loop.
- The candidate's side: A serving CXO exploring a move carries real risk if it becomes known. Candidate identities stay with the named contacts on your panel, and we do not circulate profiles beyond them.
Global executive search firms carry extensive off-limits agreements. Every client they serve becomes a company they cannot recruit from, often for years, and the largest firms serve most of the large employers in a sector. That narrows what they can actually show you.
Our off-limits restrictions are far narrower, so the pool we can approach for a Kolkata or eastern India mandate is correspondingly wider.
Plan for six to twelve weeks from signed mandate to accepted offer, with mapping and first approaches inside the first three weeks. Board-level and confidential mandates sit at the longer end. Where the need is interim rather than permanent, a leadership role can also be filled through contract staffing. Notice periods at this level commonly run three months, so build joining date expectations from acceptance, not from search start.
If a firm promises a CXO shortlist in a week, they are showing you a database, not a search.
Executive search in Kolkata is run by consultants working out of our Sector V head office, with sourcing support from our Delhi and Bangalore offices and the same team that runs our B2B recruitment services. Recruitment Mantra is ISO certified, and founder Arghya Sarkar and the firm were recognised as Leading Recruitment Consultant in West Bengal at the Times Business Awards 2024.
Senior search in India is normally retained, billed in stages across mandate start, shortlist and joining, as a percentage of fixed annual compensation. We quote per mandate.
Where nothing contractual prevents it, yes, because that is usually where the relevant people are. We agree an off-limits list with you at mandate stage and work inside it.
We agree a replacement guarantee period in the mandate letter. We also try to prevent it earlier, by assessing motivation and fit rather than only track record, which is where most senior misfires start.
If you are considering a leadership hire, we can talk before you commit to anything, including whether a search is the right instrument for the role at all.
Call 1800 572 4510 (Monday to Saturday, 10.30am to 6.30pm) or email support@recruitmentmantra.com.